Music Streaming Services

(or call ‘em what you will)

Listening to music is super important to me and also my kids and my wife - so music-listening plays a huge part in our family and our all day life. We all listen to different styles of music so I guess together we pretty much cover every genre that there is, which is really cool since I like all kinds of different music and am this way introduced to stuff I wouldn’t normally get into.

I’m a vinyl and tape cassette person, probably since that’s how I discovered music and through what I began to incorporate it into my life. I didn't quite fancy the CD when it came but I accepted it and moved along with it, but when streaming came along I loved it. I was able to dive into all different kinds of music, stuff that I’d never would have explored otherwise, and it was all available for me to devour right there and add that my whole record collection was there easily accessible, everywhere I went, only a click or two away.

Yeah yeah, of course I’m aware of the unfair economic side of music streaming but isn’t that the general story of an artist all through history? If I remember it correctly there were the exact same discussions and protests when the CD came, the artists got an even smaller piece of the earnings than before. For me it’s politics and of course I think it’s all totally wrong and sad that the artist, the creators and the performers, don't get paid for their art and what they create but I mean it’s always been like that, it’s nothing new, there are millions examples long before music streaming and the CD, so nothing has really changed. I believe this has a lot to do with the fact that art really doesn’t ever go well along with business, they are very hard to combine, and I think artistic persons are very seldom business persons.

Anyway me and my family have been using Spotify for a long time but for political reasons, and a bit due to the sound quality rap going on everywhere around me, I decided it was time for us to move elsewhere. After extensive testing and trying out some of the bigger music streaming services I decided to go with Apple Music, a lot because we’re pretty deeply integrated in the Apple universe. But after a month with Apple Music we all found it very buggy, with lots of dysfunctions, poor synching when using and logged in on multiple Apple machines, unstable, not near as user friendly as you’d expect it to be, slow (when I push play I expect it to play instantly) and I really need it to function flawlessly through, not only my studio/work-space systems but our Sonos system, through our Sony entertainment system and in the car, which only Spotify seems to do satisfactorily. Then I discovered that several albums that are on Spotify were missing in Apple Music. I don’t listen to playlists or single songs, I listen to albums and not too rarely pretty unknown albums by 1980s heavy metal/hard rock bands not many have even heard of.

And the sound quality rap? Well, each their own but for me when I listen to what I listen to 75%, which is 1970s, 80s and some early 90s hard rock/heavy metal, the sound in so-called “lossless” (or even more lossless) in my ears doesn't sound good at all. Of course I’ve tried various streaming services through many different systems and no I don’t like it, to me it sounds artificial, cramped and cold. Ok, classical music, jazzy stuff, modern pop/dance music and electronic music, like industrial music for instance, sounds ok in “lossless” but rock with soul pre 2000s? Not in my ears. And no I do not agree that Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music etc sounds better than Spotify. (I believe it might just be merchandise.) But are they politically more correct, more fair? Well so they say, but since listening to music is so important for me, and my family and also the usability, I need it to work - Back to Spotify for us. 

What sounds good or not is very individual so whatever sounds good to you is good for you. For me I can say, after way too much time spent and a way too deep dive into this, right now it’s primarily vinyl and secondary, in everyday life for me the most applicable, Spotify.

And here's me on Spotify for ya:

Of course I'm on all other music streaming services as well, you'll find direct links to some of them on my official web portal at: www.saari.net

Rock.

/ PM

I guess we’re back

Last week we had our first rehearsals in seven months (!) with the PM Saari Band and it all went surprisingly well. We ran through some 20 songs, in the only way we can: All in, like our lives depended on it, a bit rusty but felt fantastic. I mean we’re old men with aching, semi broken, rusty body parts and brains, so yeah we’re putting in quite some pain and sacrifice into this art, but we keep going on.

And yeah, in case you’ve missed it, the absence of rehearsals has been solely due to my left hand fingertip injury that resulted in me not being able to play guitar at all for over half a year. I am not 100% healed after the surgery, the surgeon said it will take about a year for the connective tissue to heal completely, but I’d say the chops are there and my playing is as before, add some hunger for not playing for this long.

We’ll be throwing in some rehearsals up to X-mas break and in the beginning of 2026 we’ll continue where we left off in April - get out and play live and along with that release new music. And speaking of that...

When I some weeks ago started to finally pick up the guitar in small portions, I thought it was best to start with a finger-friendly guitar so I chose the kids’ 3/4 nylon string classical and the thing is that once I picked it up I played two riffs out of the blue and accidentally wrote a little song out of them. The first thing. So I thought, well I’ll finish that one and release it first of all to come, as a mark of the end of this forced break. 

It’s a more bluesy tune called “(Looking For) Sweetest Misery” and is about that sometimes it seems like we’re out looking for trouble and problems, sometimes really big ones, things that some of us, sometimes, are really trying to avoid but unconsciously chase and bring on to bring us down. I don’t know, but it's certainly a direct reflection of me injuring my most important body part by being imprudent, close to the border of destructive. The drums, rhythm guitars and vocals are recorded by now and I’ll be finishing the rest before the holidays for a very early 2026 release.

Happy holidays, days off or whatever to y’all and may y’all have a safe and great transition to the new year. Hope it'll be a great one. See y'all there.

Peace.
/ PM

Back but not back

So summer is through and it sure was a great one, not a very productive one though, but then they rarely are, are they? Now I'm trying to land and get used to its sudden end and throw myself into the depths of work with my music, which pace has been way too slow lately. 

Then there is this..

Four months ago I managed to get something into the flesh of the fingertip of my left hand index finger - yeah, the very worst fkin finger and place to hurt yourself in being a right-handed guitarist. After various visits to the doctors and x-raying a hand surgeon opened it up two months later and picked out something unidentified encapsulated, probably a tiny wood splinter or two. 

So I haven't been able to play guitar, at all, for four months now, and now the finger is in recovery and healing after the surgery and I’m still not able to play, at all. 

We had to put all the PM Saari Band and Järntrean (Fe3) live plans on hold then in April and I still don’t know when I will be back in action again, so though eager to book some live dates, we’ll just have to wait and see.

The motivation to work with music vanished into darkness somewhat in the beginning of all this but now I have been at it again daily for a week or two, just not playing guitar. I already had quite some guitars down on disk before this, even all the guitars on a song or two, and I'm actually mixing one of them as we speak. I will continue to record vocals now and also go through, compile all the so far recorded drums to get those songs ready for some bass recording - all with the aim that I’m able to pick up the guitar and dive in again in a month or three. Or if not, maybe have some guest guitar players to play some lead guitars on some of the tunes?

I must admit I was a bit worried that the lack of being able to play guitar might hit me worse than it did, I mean four fkin months! And fkin counting! but so far I’m pretty OK with it (or maybe rather: I am accepting the fact). The thing is I am able to do basically everything else, just not play the guitar.

Well here we go again, but hey, I love working against the wind (storm?), basically always done that in a way or another - So bring it on!

I'll be back before you fkin know it.

Peace.

/ PM

Sing me a song, you’re a singer

I've always been a great fan of singers, probably more than of guitar players, and on the top of my list you’ll find David Coverdale, Ronnie James Dio, Robert Plant, Geoff Tate, John Bush (Armored Saint, Anthrax), Brent Smith (Shinedown), Ray Gillen, Oni Logan, Mats Levén and of course Bruce Dickinson and Paul Di’Anno of Iron Maiden.

Live on stage.
Photo by Åsa Urberg.

I’ve been blessed to have worked with great singers through the years, and I have enjoyed performing and writing with or for them so much. We have Lars Gudmundsson, Jari Valentino, Per Linzander, Paul Zanichelli, Jimi Roxx, Mats Brodd and, probably the most well known, Dan Dark - all different but all very competent vocalists and frontmen.

So why the hell do I sing when I don't have even nearly the same ability doing that as when I play the guitar? And when my physics and my life obviously aren’t designed for me to sing (referring to me more or less constantly having trouble with my voice and the for singing required body parts), and when I know so many great singers?

I’ve also always had a special thing for the ones of my favourite singers who also are great guitar players, like John Sykes, Dave Meniketti, John Norum, Jerry Cantrell and Pepper Keenan, and great guitar players that maybe aren’t my absolute favourite singers like Gary Moore and Zakk Wylde and great songwriters that are also guitar players/singers like Kai Hansen and Nicke Andersson. Always been drawn to the simplicity, minimalism and the straight deliverance of thoughts and feelings when you perform what you write yourself. And mainly, I like, or rather need, the challenge, I need to push myself, I need to be striving to keep me at it, to go on - and I can assure you I’m working my ass off with my vocals of my solo stuff.

Finally back recording vocals
again after a long absence.

Well, that’s my excuse for singing and now for some news: During Christmas and New Years holidays  some sht hit me, again, I was having a nice time off skiing in the north of Sweden and I got something in my breathing system, again, it knocked me down, got fever for days,  it hit my throat, hoarse voice and so on. So that pulled me back, again, but now it seems like I’ve beaten it, I’ve been able to do my workout the last month and was up skiing again last week with no problems and this week I started to record vocals and it seems to be working. So after months of being off it seems I’m on. 

RnR.
/ PM

There's always something

After being off a roll for a year I was really back on a roll after my last post here three months ago and the studio work was all finally flowing and moving forward again, and what does life throw at me? Well, fkin sht. I got something that hit me hard, some sort of a cold or a flu, or whatever it is these days. I had a fever, low but still, for a fkin month, it hit my throat and my voice was totally blown for over two months and I couldn’t start recording the vocals that I was just about to start working with. I’m not saying that all my planned releases would’ve happened anyway, but now they definitely did not.

The thing is that I’m not a person who’s sick or who rests, I can’t do that, so it always takes its time for me to recover, to heal. I have however played a lot of guitar, just jamming away, which I really normally don’t have time to do nowadays and when the hardest hit had laid off after a month or so I started working in the studio again, even though recording vocals was now off the schedule there’s always plenty to do. This might have saved my sanity for sure. 

For over two months I wasn’t able to rehearse or work out, which are two really essential requirements for me to function, but now I’ve started to work out a bit which is so important for me (my dopamine flow needs that push) and I’ve also started the work to get my voice back into full force action again. We’ve started rehearsing the acoustic stuff I’ve got going on with Mr Mallander and we’ve also thrown in some rehearsals jamming some exciting stuff with the PM Saari Band so I guess it's going forward.

Thinking about it, of course life did throw me back, there’s always something isn’t there? That's what it does, breaks the flow, pulls you back, balance it up, that’s what makes it such a good fight, right? Well it won't stop me, nothin will and I hope I’ll be able to start recording some vocals in early 2025, so I can finish some new stuff and put it out.

Y'all have the greatest holidays, I most certainly will, and take care. See you in 2025, in one way or another, in one condition or another

Peace.
/ PM